Frogfish Reproduction Photo Gallery by Ellen Muller at pbase.com

Frogfish Reproduction

I have been lucky enough to witness frogfish spawning on eighteen occasions. The first time was Friday the 13th! June 2003 and the second time was March 8th 2005. On the last occasion I had seen the large female swollen with eggs the day before with the smaller male close by so I decided to go back the next night to check on them again. I was running out of bottom time and nothing was happening so I began to move on when the male started to nudge at the female's vent. He nudged her several times as they started moving along the sponge they had been resting on and then with one last push they swam up, together, several feet into the water column. She released her egg mass and he released his sperm at the same moment. Both the male and female then drifted down slowly back onto the reef while the eggs floated up towards the surface.

Update 9/8/06:I recently witnessed 2 different pairs of frogfish spawning in less than 2 weeks. August 23rd, 2006 at 8:03pm and September 4th, 2006 at 7:40pm. I filmed the September 4th spawning with my Olympus 5050Z digital camera. Click on the view video icon (12th photo in this gallery) to watch the video. At the beginning you will notice that the frogfish give a wonderful demonstration of spawning behavior without the female actually releasing the eggs. The actual release of eggs and sperm happens very quickly so I was extremely pleased that they put on quite a show before the actual event.

More spawning dates...March 28th, 2007 7:25pm, April 1st, 2008 7:24pm, May 22nd, 2008 7:26pm, June 28th, 2008 7:30pm, June 5th, 2009 7:27pm, August 2nd 2009 7:11pm, March 16th 2010, 7:34pm, March 29th, 2010 7:41pm, July 11th, 2011 7:42pm, August 17th, 2011 7:33pm, September 22nd, 2011 8:07pm, March 9th, 2012 7:14pm, March 14th, 2012, 6:56pm, March 23rd 2012 7:31pm, May 18th 2012 7:37pm.

For more info....
Teresa Zubi's Frogfish Pages
Florida Museum of Natural History

All images and content Copyright © 2006-2010 Ellen Muller. Please do not use any images without permission.

small orange male starting to push at the larger female, swollen with eggs	small orange male nudging female seconds before spawning	Swollen female moving upward in the water column to release her eggs with orange male lower right	female releasing eggs
egg raft	egg raft 2	female just before spawning	gravid female
frogfish couple	Pier Pair	Playa Pabao pair	Frogfish Spawning Video
Frogfish Pair	Three Frogfish	Three Frogfish	Frogfish Pair
Frogfish Spawning	Frogfish Spawning	Egg Raft	Close Up of the Egg Raft
Egg Raft Stuck	Egg Raft Stuck	Frogfish Egg Raft	Frogfish Spawning
Taking Care of Business	Mating Frogfish	Frogfish Pair	Frogfish Pair
3 Frogfish Spawning	3 Frogfish Spawning

comment |

Ellen Muller		29-Dec-2006 19:26
Hi Graham, I have never seen frogfish spawn at dusk, as many other fish do, but only at night. I noted the times of the last two spawnings that I witnessed on my notes at the top of this page. The first two spawnings, in 2003 and 2005, occurred at 9:08pm and 8:45pm, respectively. Good luck with your quest to witness frogfish spawning!

Graham Abbott		29-Dec-2006 05:51
Hi Ellen, Carol sent me the details on the frogfish spawning. I am very interested to hear at what time od the day this happens, is it like with most other fish, at dusk? The more information you could send me the better, I don't have a decent conneciton here right now, but the small images are enough to see that you have documented somehtign evry sepcial indeed. I ahve seen the same thing happen, with two frogfish together, then came back laetr to find oen totally deflated, obviosuly we missed the spawning. Look forward to hearign mroe form you! Graham www.diving4images.com

click on thumbnails for full image

Type your message and click Add Comment

It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest. Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help	private comment